


Sulphur Beneath the Peppermint

by DragonThistle



Category: Cuphead (Video Game)
Genre: Character Study, Non-Chronological, headcanons, mild alcohol use, mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 15:40:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13767249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonThistle/pseuds/DragonThistle
Summary: Greed is a monster. It makes a home in people's hearts and it festers. And the Devil, well, the Devil can smell that greed bubbling like a good brew.And it's one of his favorite meals.





	1. Provenience

The Devil lives in a casino across the train tracks in a spot called Inkwell Hell.

They call it The Devil's Casino even though it's been there long before the Father of Lies moved in. King Dice runs the place. Rare is it that anyone sees the black shape of the demon in the gilded halls; he mostly keeps himself to himself and watches the goings on from his office. But if you were lucky at the tables, at the slots, at anything that caused your chips to stack, your shadow would get long and a voice would rumble in your ear,

"How about a deal?"

Folks always said they'd quit before He showed up.

They never did. And by then it was too late.

Greed is a monster. It makes a home in people's hearts and it festers. And the Devil, well, the Devil can smell that greed bubbling like a good brew.

And it's one of his favorite meals.

"Don't go to the casino on the other side of the tracks. The Devil lives there."

A common warning. But curiosity often grabbed the hand of the unwary saying "just a look, just a small peek, and then we'll go".

Those looking for a thrill. Those looking for a second chance. The desperate, the tired, the unfulfilled, the rich, the poor. They were all drawn towards the sticky sweet aroma of easy riches. Some people claimed there was witchcraft involved, spells that pulled any and all into the casino.

But mostly, folks didn't like to talk about it. If they pretended it didn't exist, then it was like it wasn't there. 

"Don't go to the casino on the other side of the tracks." They say. A warning. 

"The Devil lives there."


	2. Apotheosis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Formatting this chapter was a bitch and a half. Apologies if it looks weird or is broken.

The brothers are eight years old when they are told not to go too far.

Cuphead asks why.

They are told that the world is dangerous and there are people out there who will hurt them. Or worse.

  

\----------------- 

 

Mugman gets a chip in his leg when the brothers are five.

He cries and because he's crying, Cuphead starts to cry. He doesn't have a conscious understanding of blame or guilt at this age but he knows, somehow, that his brother is hurt because of him.

They had been told to stay off the rocks by the shoreline.

 

\-----------------

  

Cuphead covers his guilt with bravado and won't look his brother in the eye.

The paper in his hands burns his fingertips and he swears he can feel the ink staining his skin from the list of names. 

  

\-----------------

  

They're short for their age--dishware tends to be on the shorter side. But that doesn't slow either of them down.

The brothers are a wild pair, roaming around the forest and plaguing the sweets shop in town. A right menace to society. Cuphead is noisy and boisterous and sticks his nose where it doesn't belong. He finds trouble far too often and drags Mugman along for the ride. His brother laughs easily and can hit just as hard but appears to be the more rational of the two.

Neither of them look before they leap.

 

\-----------------

 

Gambling the night away is fun until it's not.

 

\-----------------

  

It isn't until they're in their teens that Cuphead gets into his first real fist fight.

The bully had been picking on him for his height. No one will admit who threw the first punch but Cuphead was the one who came out on top. There's a crack in the rim of his head and a black eye slowly forming, but he's still snorting defiantly when Elder Kettle comes to collect him from the principle's office.

 

\-----------------

  

"Julien says the Devil lives by the train tracks." Cuphead says over his dinner, "He says if you go down there at night and make a wish then the Devil will come out and play a game with you. He says if you beat him then you get your wish but if you lose then he takes your soul to Hell!"

"Julien's a liar!" Mugman cries, nearly toppling out of his chair to interrupt, "He just said that to scare me!"

"Nuh-uh!" Cuphead shouts back, "Julien said his big sister's best friend's brother _saw it_! He said they seen the Devil!"

"Boys!" Silence cracks across the table, "You are not to go near those train tracks, is that clear?"

"Why not?" Cuphead asks, always questioning, always needing a reason.

"There are bad things out there," Comes the answer, "Never go near the train tracks. People who go out there never come back."

Effectively cowed, the boys return to their meals.

 

\-----------------

  

Mugman has nightmares about shadowy monsters and train tracks for a year.

He's afraid of the dark until they are ten.

 

\-----------------

 

They don't have time to sleep but they're both getting exhausted. They've been up for almost 24 hours now and it's starting to show. But they can't stop, they don't have time for it. 

No time to rest. No time to sleep. No time, no time, no time.

They have until midnight or they're doomed.

 

\-----------------

 

Mugman finds a butterfly trapped in a spider's web.

He's trying to think of a way to save it when Cuphead reaches out and swats at the web. It crumbles easily and the butterfly untangles itself before fluttering away.

Mugman doesn't speak to his brother the rest of the day.

 

\-----------------

  

The Die House smells of peppermint and spices trying too hard to cover the bitter stench of sulphur and smoke. 

King Dice is as sharp and crisp as his suit. 

He checks the papers Cuphead hands to him, gives them both a once over, and then scoffs at them. He stows the captured contracts in his suit coat, tells them they're missing one, won't let them pass.

Mugman's trembling with exhaustion as they stumble back into the thinning sunlight.

  

\-----------------

  

 

They're alone before they can walk. They don't remember their parents.

 

\-----------------

 

Both of them get proper shitfaced when they come of age. The sun is rising by the time the party winds down.

Cuphead never finds his shirt and Mugman's lips are sore from trading kisses.

They think their hangovers are worth it.

 

\----------------- 

 

There's a carnival nearby but Elder Kettle won't let them go.

"Too close to the train tracks." He says.

He grounds them both when he catches them trying to sneak out of the house that night.

 

\-----------------

  

Lightning in his veins as he picks up the pair of dice. His heartbeat is roaring in his ears, drowning out the cheers of the crowd.

And the desperate pleas of his brother.

 

\-----------------

  

Cuphead’s good at math but terrible at science. Mugman is the opposite.

They do each other’s homework until they’re caught. Then they keep doing it anyway.

 

\-----------------

  

“What’s on the other side of the ocean?”

“The world, I guess.”

“We should go see it someday.”

  

\-----------------

 

 

There’s one winter where Cuphead gets so sick, he has to stay at a hospital.

Mugman is terrified for his brother. He can’t sleep, he hardly eats, and he spends every moment he can with his sibling. He cries a lot when his brother is asleep, afraid that he won’t wake up again.

Elder Kettle tells him he’ll worry himself sick if he doesn’t stop. Mugman says that at least then he’ll be next to his brother. His guardian gently berates him and asks him how he thinks Cuphead would feel if he woke up and found Mugman sick in bed nearby.

Mugman remembers Cuphead crying when they were kids. Remembers that chip out of his leg. Remembers the slippery rocks on the shoreline.

He finishes his dinner and manages a somewhat restful sleep that night.

  

\-----------------

  

 

The snake eyes stare right through them.

  

\-----------------

 

 

Cuphead fell out of a tree once when they were little.

Mugman remembers vividly the sound his brother’s porcelain skin had made as it cracked and splintered on the forest floor. It had made him wretch, dry heaving at the noise.

He never wants to hear that sound again.

 

\-----------------

  

The first stars are winking to life as the brothers push open the casino doors. It’s cold and empty inside, the belly of a hungry beast waiting to be fed. Lights dance from the slot machines but the place is eerily still and quiet.

They can smell the sulphur under the peppermint.

 

\-----------------

  

Everyone calls Mugman a good kid until he decks little Scarlet Begonia in the face for calling him names.

Cuphead laughs himself silly at everyone’s shocked expressions.

Mugman isn’t as bad as his brother, the residents of Inkwell find.

He’s _worse_.

  

\-----------------

  

The adults talk a lot about “The Devil” but when the kids ask, they go all quiet and say it’s not for little ones to ask about.

But they also say to stay away from “The Devil”.

More than one child goes missing over the summer. They never turn up again and adults whisper in hushed voices with worried looks. They’re frightened. And if the adults are scared then it must be Bad.

People don’t go out after dark.

  

\-----------------

  

Porkrind catches Cuphead trying to sneak sweets from his cart and gives him such a wallop he nearly snaps the kid’s handle off.

Mugman bites back an “I told you so” as they’re marched back to Elder Kettle’s house.

Cuphead isn’t scared of the old shopkeeper but Mugman is. 

Porkrind, the folks say when they think no one is listening, has seen things.

  

\-----------------

  

Shards of shiny plastic chip off of King Dice’s corners when he stumbles and eventually collapses over the betting table.

He tries to pick himself up with quivering limbs, teeth gritted, suit torn and ruined. When he sags to the floor, he curses both the brothers with a wheezing, pathetic laugh. 

It almost sounds regretful.

  

\----------------- 

 

 

“Soul contracts are more than just paper, kid.”

  

\-----------------

 

 

Elder Kettle won’t say it but they know he’s disappointed.

They can see it in the set of his mouth and hear it in the echoes of his words.

 

\-----------------

 

There are names on the list that they recognize; neighbors from the next town over or performs who have appeared in bright colors on posters.

Even so, they don’t hesitate and they don’t hold back. Their options are too limited for dilly-dallying.

 

\-----------------

 

The Devil laughs at them when Cuphead refuses to hand over the collected contracts.

It’s a horrible laugh, fingernails on a chalkboard screeching down their spines. He laughs and when he stops and he looks furious. The anger radiating off of him is tangible. The taste of hot metal fills Mugman’s mouth and his porcelain body suddenly feels brittle and hollowed out. It is suffocatingly hot in the room.

The fight that follows is claustrophobic and nasty. 

Though he doesn’t leave his throne, the brothers get hefty reminders that this is The Devil they are clashing with. The Prince of Lies, the Morning Star, Beelzebub, the King of Hell. And he wields all the powers of the cursed, the damned, the forsaken, and the burning.

When Mugman’s arm snaps off in the fight and goes skittering uselessly across the floor, he has, for a brief moment, the barest hint of regret.

  

\-----------------

  

Don’t go to the casino on the wrong side of the tracks. It’s called Inkwell Hell for a reason. The Devil lives there. 

He sees into the hearts of anyone and everyone and he knows their desires. He is a creature of chance. He loves to bet and gamble because for him, the house always wins. Don’t deal with the Devil. Don’t go to the casino on the other side of the train tracks.

The Devil lives there.

And even sorely beaten and the inked paper of his contracts burned, he is still there. And he is still in charge. And he is angry.


End file.
